LADIES OFF TO A FLYING START"

Following their fine win in the Alpha Beta Trophy meeting at Enfield on 8^th April, Havering Mayesbrook's Southern Women's team got their league season off to an impressive winning start at Woking last Saturday in glorious sunshine, beating Walton, Newquay & Par, Ilford, and the host club Woking.

The first win on the track was a captain's performance from Debbie Sullivan in the senior A 800m, and was later followed by a second win in the B 1500m. Debbie had missed the earlier Enfield success whilst competing for Great Britain and Northern Ireland in a road relays event in Seoul, South Korea. Sister, Joanne Sullivan completed a family treble by winning the A 3000m. After leading the field for seven laps Joanne was overtaken by the Ilford athlete on the final bend, only to retake the lead in the home straight and win by just under two seconds.

Laurie Cossey (pictured left) won both the A 400m and the B 800m, and rounded off a busy day by running legs in both second placed 4x100m and 4x400m relays. Completing the dominance of the middle distance events was Dorita Harmse, winning the A 1500m. In the 100m hurdles there were wins for both Kate Brewington and Claire Brennan in the A and B races respectively.

Although there were good solid all-round performances in all the senior field events, the only winner on the day was Sue Bunting in the A triple jump. This was Sue's return to competition following a knee operation last October, and was very pleasing to see her back to winning ways.

In the younger age group, the under-15 girls completely overwhelmed the opposition by winning 15 of their 21 events. There were two triple winners, Melanie Harrison in the A discus and javelin, and B shot, and Caroline Smith in the A 800m and shot, and B javelin. With Lynsey Clark winning the B discus, it completed a clean sweep of all the throwing events. Amy Ashwell was the other winner in the field with a win in the B high jump at a new personal best height.

On the track Lynsey Clark completed her double when she won the B 800m, shortly followed by a win for fellow middle distance runner Natalie Adams in the B 1500m. In the sprints Laura Jones was unbeaten, winning both her main event, the A 100m in a blanket finish, and the B 200m, with Nicola Schofield winning an equally close A 200m. Claire Sargent recorded a Grade 1 performance in winning the A 75m hurdles in an English Schools qualifying time of 11.9 seconds. Danielle Ross then teamed up with Sargent, Schofield and Jones, to round off an exceptional day for the under 15's, with a thrilling 4x100m relay, seeing Jones take the baton on the last leg in third place and battle through to take the honours in the last 10 metres.

The next league fixture takes the team to High Wycombe on Cup Final day (May 20), when the competition will be from Wycombe, Braintree, Huntingdon and Plymouth.

RESULTS

SENIOR
	A STRINGS	Pos.	Time/Dist			B STRINGS	Pos.	Time/Dist
100	Hannah Gamester	4	13.5		100	Ruth O'Sullivan	3	14.0
200	Hannah Gamester	4	28.2		200	-------------	--	----
400	Laurie Cossey	1	59.1		400	Ruth O'Sullivan	2	62.9
800	Debbie Sullivan	1	2:17.7		800	Laurie Cossey	1	2:17.9
1500	Dorita Harmse	1	4:35.6		1500	Debbie Sullivan	1	4:42.3
3000	Joanne Sullivan	1	10:46.9		3000	Helen Biscoe	2	11:31.5
100H	Kate Brewington	1	18.4		100H	Claire Brennan	1	17.5
400H	-------------	--	----		400H	-------------	--	----
L.J.	Hannah Gamester	3	4.91		L.J.	Sue Bunting	3	4.49
H.J.	Kate Brewington	3	1.50		H.J.	Corrina Keevil	4	1.40
T.J.	Sue Bunting	1	10.18		T.J.	Corrina Keevil	2	9.05
P.V.	-------------	--	----			-------------
S.P.	Selina Fasulo	4	8.25		S.P	Kate Brewington	2	7.71
D.T.	Sarah Deacon	3	29.45		D.T.	Selina Fasulo	2	23.16
J.T.	Sarah Deacon	4	22.29		J.T	Claire Brennan	4	19.14
H.T.	Sarah Deacon	3	29.56		H.T.	Selina Fasulo	2	22.27
4x100	Claire Brennan				4x400	Laurie Cossey
	Laurie Cossey					Helen Biscoe
	Kate Brewington					Debbie Sullivan
	Hannah Gamester	2	53.2			Dorita Harmse	2	4:13.7